Innholdsfortegnelse for January - February 2023 i Classic Racer

In the beer tent, at the Isle of ManTT in 1996 and Phil Read – the Prince of Speed – is holding court. As a newbie race reporter, I’m hanging on the coat-tails of the greats: not just great racers and champions like Read, but journalists like John Brown, Norrie Whyte and Mac McDiarmid are in attendance.The conversation soon turns to legendary racers and Phil turns to the assembled hacks and says one name: ‘Jarno – just imagine what he would have become.’ High praise indeed… Jarno Saarinen’s career may have been tragically cut short, but its impact is still felt today.The Finnish rider began racing on ice in his native country, as well as indulging in grass-track and speedway – perfect training for his ownTarmac racing career… His grand…

A great historic motor race meeting, and the only sporting event of its kind to be staged entirely in a period theme, the Goodwood Revival is an immersive celebration of a less disposable world, where ‘make do and mend’ was a way of life, ensuring a legacy of treasured cars, bikes, vehicles and aircraft and vintage fashion that has survived across the generations. ‘Revive & thrive,’ is the thoroughly modern ethos that drives the event forward, showcasing creative ways to live more sustainably and the community of incredible people who revive time-worn treasures. The unmistakable sight and sound of three Spitfires with 27 litre Merlin engines greeted me each morning as I walked across the grass from the car park. This was just a taster for the enormous crowd of…

ON TRACK The CRMC was at North Yorkshire’s Croft circuit for its seventh and final meeting of the 2022 season, with a 29-race timetable comprising the final two legs of the club championships, the last round of the ACU series and a one-off Race of the Year for each class. It was also the opportunity for the club’s enthusiastic band of paraders to enjoy a last few gallops and as an added bonus there was a stunning display of historic race machines on show, many of which took to the track during the two GP parades. Guests of honour Alex George and Charlie Williams were on hand for two lengthy Q&A sessions and mingled with race fans and competitors throughout the weekend. The 350 and 500 classic ACU championships had…

ARCHIVE Phil Read, who passed away on October 6, was a seven/eight time world champion. Racing in a time of greats, Phil would win the 250cc crown four times (1964, 65, 68, 71) the 125cc title once (1968) and 500cc titles in 1973 and 1974 – the last of MV Agusta’s titles and the last four-stroke title until 2002. His final – and some say ‘questionable’ title – was theTT-F1 series.This was a title that was created solely to fill the gap in the Isle of ManTT’s lost world championship status in 1976. Phil – often a critic of the Isle of ManTT races – promptly entered in 1977 and won it… This and many of the titles he won would sum up the dichotomy of Phil Read: clearly gifted,…

PEOPLE Although female passengers were taking part in the sidecar class of postwar TT races (there has never been a sidecar Manx Grand Prix) it was not until 1962 that a woman rode in the solo classes, that famously being Beryl Swain in the inaugural 50cc event. However, the resulting publicity seemed to cause the governing body of the sport, the FIM, to take fright, presumably worried about an even greater level of (adverse) publicity should any female suffer serious injury in competition, and they promptly imposed a ban on women solo riders that lasted until after the TT was no longer run as a round of the World Championships. In 1978, the first woman to take advantage of the eventual lifting of the ban was Hilary Musson, who entered…

FEATURES When Gerald Davison joined the Honda Motor Company as a young import and distribution manager in 1968, the firm had just withdrawn from all racing activities, despite Mike Hailwood winning the 250 and 350cc world championships for Honda and finishing 2nd in the 500cc class on the big Honda-Four. Although, as an ex-racer and a great fan of the sport, it didn’t initially trouble Davison that Honda would rest on its laurels, by the early 1970s – when he was the senior manager for Honda in the UK, and responsible for everything bar the sales department – he felt there was something missing and decided to do something about it. He says: “My objective was to make being a Honda owner a truly unique experience, and we were heading…

It was a welcome return of classic racing motorcycles to Mona’s Isle at the Manx Grand Prix. Lightweight Manx Grand Prix Four months after breaking both ankles in a collision at the Cookstown 100, Mike Browne chalked up his first victory on the Snaefell Mountain Course in the Lightweight Manx Grand Prix. The shortened-in-length Dunlop Lightweight race was a continuation of the Classic TT version, with the addition of three Moto3 machines. The top dozen or so riders were TT regulars, so it didn’t actually fit the true description of a Manx Grand Prix either. The racing was relatively close, even if numbers were perhaps not what had been hoped for. Cork man Browne led at Glen Helen by four seconds from pre-race favourite Jim Hind, while an early retirement…

PLUS: // RACE REPORTS // LINE ART // WHATEVER HAPPENEDTO //YOUR RACE MACHINES AND PICTURES AND MUCH // MUCH MORE! * HUGH ANDERSON THE COOL KIWI! THE JEFFERIES DYNASTY CONTINUED WITH NICK JEFFERIES The next issue of Classic Racer is on sale on February 16. The editor reserves the right to move things about a bit, depending on space available to bring you the best motorcycle racing features from across many decades! So don’t moan at him if something isn’t in the mag – instead, why not get a subscription? Check out page 22. HONDA BRITAIN THE INSIDE STORY PART 2 DAVE STREET RACER, DEALER, ACTOR! BOZ NIGEL BOSWORTH’S AMAZING RACE AND MANAGERIAL CAREER: PART 1…

Many recall Frederick Burdette Spencer’s amazing double title win in 1985, when he took both the 500cc and 250cc titles for Honda on their NSR250 and NSR500 two-stroke machines but his first title was no less dramatic. This was to be a direct battle between the old king – Kenny Roberts – and the pretender to the crown, Spencer. 1982 had finally seen Honda ditch their over-complicated four-stroke NR750 and instead adopt a lightweight three-cylinder two-stroke 500cc machine, the NS500. Spencer would take his first 500cc win at the 1982 Belgian GP.That year he would claim four pole positions, four lap records and two race wins on his way to 3rd overall. For 1983 he and the NS would go head-to-head with Roberts’ four-cylinder OW70. Surely the grizzled veteran would…

Forget MotoGP or even World Superbike. The most dramatically entertaining and closely fought international category in road racing today is the so-called Post-Classic Superbike category. This has caught on bigtime around the world in the past decade, catering for air-cooled multi-cylinder son-of-streetbike racers from the late 1970s and early 1980s. While simply spectacular in its own right, this post-Classic class recaptures the variety and thrills of Superbike’s early days, when Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki fours grappled with BMW, Ducati and Moto Guzzi twins in a tight struggle for sportsbike supremacy. Strangely, though, today’s post-Classic grids around the world are practically devoid of BMW Boxer twins which, besides winning the world’s debut Superbike title in 1976 courtesy of Reg Pridmore in the USA, were strong contenders for success in the Battle…

Valentino Rossi had many fierce rivalries during his astonishing 26-year career in Grands Prix; from Sete Gibernau to Casey Stoner, and Jorge Lorenzo to Marc Marquez, but there was no one he hated more than Max Biaggi. That the feeling was entirely mutual, only added to the drama. And this one went deep; so deep that it started long before the two even raced against each other. Rossi made his debut in the 125cc world championship in 1996, by which time Biaggi was already a two-time world champion in the 250cc class (he would eventually win four quarter-litre titles) and already something of a nemesis to Rossi. One of Biaggi’s main rivals in the middleweight Grand Prix class was Loris Capirossi and, since Rossi was a fan of Loris, Max…

ON TRACK Snetterton is where the CRMC held its first ever meeting in 1980, and the club was back at the Norfolk venue for the first time in three years for its penultimate get together of the season. The former Second World War USAF bomber base has undergone many alterations and improvements since that first meeting, but one thing that has never changed is that it remains a super-quick circuit where competitors should ensure they have plenty of horsepower if they’re going to be successful. The open, rural setting of Snetterton is more exposed to the elements than some venues but there were no weather concerns on this occasion as conditions were nigh on perfect for racing, and several long established lap records were lowered, some by a large margin.…